7th morning, test pleating 1.75 hours TOTAL: 8 hours

i knew I was tight on fabric, having a touch less than five yards, but I'd hoped I could pleat to sett, since I need the practice. Alas, it was not to be. The tartan divides itself up quite nicely into pleats about 1 1/8th inch if I had enough, but I do not. Thus, I'm pleating to stripe. I did a test pleating to "no stripe", but the massive expanse of red bugged me, so I discarded that. I'm pleating to one of the blue/green stripes, with a bit of red showing at one side and small white and yellow stripes down the length. You'll see it when it's done.

I'm in a dilemma. I have enough for 19 pleats if I pleat to stripe. The way I've pleated it now, there's a smallish, but strong red stripe to tone side in the pleat reveal, but the total width of the pleats across the rumpus-side is about 2 inches too big. If I pleat "smaller" and remove the red stripe, the pleats across the rumpus will be about an inch and a half too small. If I pleat "a little bit smaller" then the red stripe gets....in my judgement...."too small to look good".

I might have to go with 18 pleats, which annoys me. If I have material for pleats, I prefer to put them into the kilt, but maybe that ain't gonna work this time. I can adjust the apron width to accomodate, my feeling being that more pleats is better, but there's limits, and this kilt will feel and swing the same with 18 pleats or 19..

Ah, the saga continues.